Melanoma

Efficacy of Alternative and Other Treatments According to GRADE* Ranking:

Flaxseed Oil  [6, 7, 8, 9]:

Please note, this management does NOT treat the condition itself. It may mildly help with some of the symptoms, and even then has insufficient evidence to back up this claim at present.

Recommendation: weakly in favor  (Evidence shows that flaxseed oil may reduce the formation, growth or spread of melanoma)

Grade of Evidence: low quality of evidence

* www.gradeworkinggroup.org

Summary References

Treatments

1. Bajetta E, Del Vecchio M, Bernard-Marty C, Vitali M, Buzzoni R, Rixe O, Nova P, Aglione S, Taillibert S, Khayat D (2002). "Metastatic melanoma: chemotherapy". Semin Oncol 29  (5): 427–45

2. Bhatia S, Tykodi SS, Thompson JA (2009). "Treatment of Metastatic Melanoma: An Overview"

3. Bastiaannet E, Beukema J, Hoekstra H (2005). "Radiation therapy following lymph node dissection in melanoma patients: treatment, outcome and complications". Cancer Treat Rev 31 (1): 18–26

4. Bene, NI, et al. Mohs micrographic surgery is accurate 95.1% of the time for melanoma in situ: a prospective study of 167 cases Dermatol Surg. 2008 May;34(5):660-4.Cure rate as high as 98% for small melanoma in situ, and as high as 95% noted for lentigo maligna variant of melanona in situ has been reported with Mohs surgery.

5. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec10/ch128/ch128e.html#sec10-ch128-ch128e-1219c

6. Ades T, Alteri R, Gansler T, Yeargin P, "Complete Guide to Complimentary & Alternative Cancer Therapies", American Cancer Society, Atlanta USA, 2009

7. http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/TreatmentsandSideEffects/ComplementaryandAlternativeMedicine/HerbsVitaminsandMinerals/flaxseed

8. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/patient-flaxseed.html

9. http://nccam.nih.gov/health/flaxseed/index.htm
 

Public Discussion